Using Cooking Skills as Coping Skills for Motherhood

Dancing Queen

Last summer my friend Jenny mentioned that she goes to Jazzercise classes. I giggled to myself, picturing people dressed up in leotards, wearing braided headbands and legwarmers dancing to Let’s Get Physical by Olivia Newton John. Last time I heard about Jazzercise was probably sometime in the 80’s, so it the thought of it was stuck in that decade as well.

Later that month, my cousin Kelly mentioned to my that she did some babysitting at the local Jazzercise center. Childcare peaked my interest. I had to check it out. I had heard it is much more like dance than aerobics. This might actually be a match for me.

I mean, I aspired to be on Soul Train when I was younger. I was convinced I had to go to a school like where the kids in FAME went to. I LOVED to dance. Ask any close friend of mine what happens at a wedding when the song Footloose comes on. The people at the wedding inevitably form a circle around me while I break it down like Kevin Bacon. I am pretty sure they are laughing at me, but I like to imagine they are moved by my incredible knowledge of 80’s dance moves.

With all of this in mind I was still a bit apprehensive of trying Jazzercise out, but I had to go once and see for myself.

I walked in and they greeted me like they had known me for years. No one was in a leotard and legwarmers, so I must have looked pretty darn silly. But they were nice to me anyway. The music started and I was able to keep up okay. I only bumped into people a few times. Then people started cat calling. WhooHOO! They would scream. I mean really, are they that excited to be exercising? It made me uncomfortable.

The instructor started talking about how beautiful we all were and how happy she was that we were there. I didn’t even know what to do with that information, so I just looked down…and slammed into the poor woman dancing next to me. I am pretty the people in charge were going to ask me not to come again because I was injuring everyone around me. But they didn’t.

Now it is 7 months later and I am hooked. I drank the Kool Aid and became a tried and true lover of Jazzercise. I now go to get my daily dose of motivational speaking while I dance away to a huge array of music, new and old. And yes, I even make the cat calls.

With this healthy choice I am happy. I have yet to change the way I eat, but we all need to take baby steps towards our goals, right? This recipe is a baby step towards lighter eating.